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South Carolina’s Steve Spurrier Thinks Florida Has The Toughest Schedule Of Any SEC Team, “(It’s) Brutal”

Steve Spurrier became Steve Spurrier while coaching at Florida from 1990 to 2001, winning one national championship and six SEC titles. Spurrier is now the head man at one of the Gators’ rival schools, South Carolina, but he’s not afraid to give the Gainesville, Fla. based program some respect. Spurrier thinks Will Muschamp’s team has the toughest schedule of any SEC team, by far.

The SEC voted on Sunday to keep permanent cross-division rivals, meaning that Florida has to play LSU every season. The Gators also play out-of-conference opponent Florida State annually. In 2014, Florida’s schedule seems incredibly difficult.

“To me, Florida’s got the toughest schedule of any of us,” Spurrier said. “That’s a tough deal for Coach [Will] Muschamp. He can’t complain about it and can’t say anything about it, but I’ll say something: He’s got the toughest schedule in the conference with only six home games. They’ve got Alabama and LSU next year. Did you know that? That’s brutal.”

Some schools, like Florida, are being put at a competitive disadvantage for the sake of tradition.

“It’s not exactly fair by any means,” Spurrier said. “But that’s the way we’ve always done it. We can still fill the ballparks and the interest is at an all-time high. We’ll worry about that fairness later on.

“In college football, you are whatever your schedule is. Nobody gave a dang last year that Texas A&M, their four out-of-conference games were Texas El Paso, Sam Houston State, SMU and Rice. That was their four out-of-conference games, and I think all four of them were at home. … They gave up Texas to pick up Sam Houston State, and nobody said a word about that.”

South Carolina won’t have it easy, either. The Gamecocks get Texas A&M as their yearly cross-division foe, along with playing in-state rival Clemson each season. The bout against the Tigers isn’t going anywhere, Spurrier said.

“I would not do it,” Spurrier said of taking Clemson off the schedule.